A race against time. The introduction of the Digital Service Act required 19 of the world‘s largest tech companies to adapt to the new standards set by the European Union in record time. The rules include a ban on targeting ads to users based on their religion, gender, or sexual preferences; mechanisms to compel platforms to disclose measures taken to counter disinformation or propaganda; and new protections for minors.
The actions taken by TikTok, Meta, X Corp and Snap
The deadline has led to an acceleration in changing business practices among online groups. Social media outlets, such as Meta, which owns Facebook, Snap and TikTok, have given their users the ability to opt out of certain personalized content that was considered critical to the success of the platforms in engaging users. Elon Musk’s X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, has also responded by introducing an anti-hate speech policy that prohibits users from targeting anyone with “harmful images, such as the Nazi swastika.
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These companies, as well as Google, have also restricted ads targeted to children under 18, giving users more insight into why they are being targeted by certain ads. In detail, Met with Nick Clegg, president of global affairs of the group, made it known that they have “formed one of the largest cross-functional teams in our history, with over 1000 people currently working on DSA”. but all tech companies operating in the EU,” he wrote in a blog post published this week.
The opposition of Amazon and Zalando, which initiate legal action
TikTok has also taken similar steps, announcing it has assigned over 1,000 employees to work on DSA compliance. While Snapchat in a note made it known that immediately “advertisers will no longer be able to use all current targeting and optimization tools to personalize ads aimed at adolescent Snapchatters”.
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However, not all companies have decided to accept European taxes regardless. Amazon and German online retailer Zalando have launched lawsuits, arguing they shouldn’t be considered “very large online platforms.” Amazon said the law should focus on companies that distribute information and for which advertising is their main source of revenue, thus seeking to distance themselves from large social platforms. Arguing that the business award is something else. Zalando, on the other hand, believes it will not exceed the user threshold set by the DSA to enter the club of large platforms (45 million active users per month).
Pinterest and Wikipedia already compliant. The bad moods of the managers
On the other hand, smaller platforms, such as Pinterest and Wikipedia, would already meet all the more stringent requirements. Wikipedia said it will publish more information about requests it receives to edit or remove content. Google in a note said that many of Brussels’ requests have already been satisfied, by enhancing the transparency page that brings together its main advertisers.
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But doubts and resentments remain: “The time available for implementation has created enormous stress. It’s very little. We needed a lot of resources, both time and money that we could have used to actually innovate,” said a manager of a large platform at Reuters, which however preferred not to be mentioned. Fears recognized by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who however reiterates: “We have proposed a stress test to help companies in this passage. It is not censorship and there will be no Ministry of Truth. But the time had come to guarantee that there weren’t platforms too big to be able to deal with them”.